Unfortunately, there were a lot of "culls" with the D600...and a lot of missed moments. You are right though, if I had gone back to spot metering and focus and using metering and focus lock I would have had a much higher hit rate. I used to use cameras in those modes almost exclusively, because they were the only modes that worked reliably. However, in recent years I haven't had to do that very often because cameras have gotten so smart. I still do, occasionally, find cases where manual focus or metering is a necessity. For example, at weddings, where black and white clothing plays havoc with auto metering I will switch to manual metering, or when birding, when refining the focus point is usually required. But, with the brunt of my photography today, I pick an aperture or shutter speed and let the camera handle the rest. The D600 isn't good with that in these low light snapshot conditions. That isn't to say it is a bad camera...just not good for the on-the-fly photography I've enjoy.